the personal blog of Akshay Agrawal

I recently participated in a Q&A with Dr. Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and Intel Fellow, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. After the event, I felt that I still had a few questions that were left unanswered, so I sent her an email. My questions and her answers are as follows:

Q: As a student interested in computer science and software development, what trends should I be aware of, both currently and for the next decade?

A:

The fact that the internet is changing dramatically – it is no longer died to a single platform or device. The web is changing too – both because of those new devices and because what we want has changed

More mobile applications, more video/media content, less text

More issues with security, authenticity and reliability

Q: An article ran recently in Wired, named “The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet” that claimed that the browser would become obsolete and apps would become the dominant method of interacting with the internet. Do you agree or disagree with the article and why?

A: The Web isn’t dead; it is just evolving! Aps are clearly one way the web will happen on a range of different devices. But I think [apps] won’t work for everything and we will see what happens with changing financial structures for paying for connectivity in particular.

Q: How has TV altered our society? How will it continue to influence society over the next decade?

A:

TV profoundly shapes our relationships to time and space – we organize our furniture around TV, and also our schedules.

TV also provides social glue – it gives us things to talk about and react to.

And yes, TV will continue to be a huge influence going forward – we watch more TV now than we did 10 years ago (at least in the US).

Q: What’s the most interesting work-related experience you’ve had while traveling the world?